Police: Arrest doesn’t come easy

Footprints in the snow outside a Freeman Field storage building that had been burglarized led to the arrest of a man early Thursday.

The arrest of Gabriel W. Deburger, 38, of Brownstown on felony charges of burglary and theft, however, didn’t come easy, police report.

The events that led to his arrest began around 1:30 a.m. Thursday when police officers responded to a report of a “suspicious” man screaming in the street in the area of Cornerstone Avenue in Seymour.

Police responding to the report said they found Deburger carrying boxed food, including doughnuts.

Police later traced Deburger’s footprints in the snow to a storage building in the 700 block of A Avenue, Seymour Assistant Police Chief Craig Hayes said. A baking company is renting that building for storage, and a door of that building had been damaged during a break-in.

At the time police found him, Deburger was cold from being outside and was acting incoherent, so he was taken to Schneck Medical Center’s emergency room to be examined, Hayes said.

When police tried to arrest Deburger at the hospital, he became combative and kicked Officer Mathew Carver in the jaw, Hayes said.

Carver received a very minor injury from the incident and was treated and released from the hospital, Hayes said.

Police used a stun gun to subdue Deburger, Hayes said.

Besides the burglary and theft charges, Deburger also faces charges of disorderly conduct, criminal mischief and two counts of battery with injury on a police officer.

He was booked into the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown at 4:45 a.m. Thursday and was being held without bond pending his initial hearing.

In November, Deburger pleaded guilty to theft in Jackson Superior Court I and was sentenced to a year of probation by Judge Bruce Markel III.